“Of course we are not happy as our candidate lost, but the Congolese people have chosen and democracy has triumphed,” Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi told Reuters.

In the early hours of Thursday the head of DR Congo’s National Electoral Commission (Ceni), Corneille Nangaa, said Mr Tshisekedi had received 38.5% of the vote and had been “provisionally declared the elected president”.